Or looking up Amelia Robles, lesbian colonel who fought in the Mexican Revolution, and finding this:

He also behaved like a man in intimate circles! Proof: he sustained romantic relationships with several women!

Okay but what happens when you search “Amelia Robles” + “lesbian”, with quotes, to make sure you only find the stuff you’re looking for?

The full sentence is “Some lesbians might argue that she was a woman who identified as a man so that she might do the things that men could do, including “courting a girl.“”  From the same book:

So now, searching for “historical lesbian’s name” + “LESBIAN” will give you the result: “Some lesbians might argue that she was a lesbian, but they’d be wrong. Today we call this transgender.” 

3 things: 1. Some of these books were published in 2004 or 2006. That’s very early, transgender politics-wise. Academics positively jumped on the opportunity to turn all historical lesbians into straight men in a progressive way. Also, anyone who’s ever read a book about lesbian history knows academics are always SO insufferably timid and prudent and apologetic when they call a historical lesbian a lesbian. There’s so much handwringing over the complicated, fluid meaning of the label “lesbian”, and reassurances that we can never know for sure how she would have identified. Meanwhile everyone is so unapologetic and confident when it comes to claiming that a historical lesbian would have identified as trans had she lived today.

2. Even if these women had spent their entire lives telling everyone they met “I’m really a man inside” and punching in the face anyone who used a ‘she’ pronoun - how would that be proof of the reality of their “identity” as trans men rather than proof that they were perfectly aware of what would happen to a lesbian in 1700s Germany or 1900s Mexico? Even if we had rock solid proof of how they ‘identified’, how would their aggressive clinging to a male identity be anything but an aggressive claim to their right to have relationships with women and wear male clothing?

But anyway, halfway through, the male reporter stops the woman who is telling this story to ask, “Are we sure ‘she’ is the correct pronoun we should be using for Olive?”

I audibly groaned. Then they started talking about how “it’s difficult to know” if they should be referring to her as a man or not because of the historical context etc blah blah blah

And I was just sitting there like, are you fucking kidding me? This badass woman dies mere days ago and you’re already trying to turn her into a man in the eyes of history? People are so fucking eager to erase lesbians, especially butch lesbians, out of history. The thought process is like, “Oh this woman was tough, did a lot of impressive things, and fucked women…. only men do that so clearly these are Male Traits and she was secretly a man.”

Have fun reading this thread 🧵

the man has harassed this woman through the courts for 4 years, and caused her financial difficulties by causing her to spend up to 6 million in legal fees, as well as smearing her reputation so she can hardly ever work again.

that he is demanding money that he knows his ex-wife doesn’t have, is, in fact further financial abuse from a man who would get angry at her for working and who often made her swear to not take movies or meetings while they were together. 

Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back. No toys. Nothing but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff. And my aunt and my cousins. And if he has time, my Uncle Frank.

joe and love bringing their baby to multiple crime scenes had me howling